Progressive Science Topics

This is an on-going list of Science topics that students can use as they start their daily Science classes in middle school. As a general philosophy of teaching, Dr. Nicholas believes in constantly reviewing topics that have already been covered, as a means of reinforcement. He does not believe in teaching a topic and "abandoning it" once it has been taught; even when students seemed to have understood it. As the year progresses, there is a building up of this progressive list. The list is modified as the topics are covered. Students actively participate in the creation of the list by providing the main words, ideas or phases that they have studied during the previous weeks. When all the classes have made their contribution to the list, it is updated and placed on the App. At the start of classes, students get an opportunity to write questions on these topics (it could have been a topic the student studied three or four months before). Each student can write about any topic on the Progressive list or any stipulation by the teacher. The students are taught in a very methodical manner to write Science questions from the list (another App is forthcoming with how that can best be done). After they have completed writing their questions, the teacher may follow with brief feedback on select students' questions (reviewing all the questions will be too time-consuming). With this approach, students are constantly receiving reviews and feedback on previous topics throughout the school year. At the appropriate time, the teacher presents the new material of the day. As with the other topics, the new material will also be repeated throughout the school year. Dr. Nicholas also believes that no science topic should be taught in isolation.